‘radical new approach to schizophrenia treatment’..

British scientists have begun testing a radically new approach to treating schizophrenia based on emerging evidence that it could be a disease of the immune system.

The first patient – a 33-year old man who developed schizophrenia after moving to London from Cameroon a decade ago – was treated at King’s College Hospital in London on Thursday – marking the start of one of the most ambitious trials to date on the biology of the illness and how to treat it.

During the next two years 30 patients will receive monthly infusions of an antibody drug currently used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) – which the team hopes will target the root causes of schizophrenia in a far more fundamental way than current therapies.